Suppose you had a 'reversing drive way' being a ramp that a car could follow up, with a spring biased front steering so that as it rolled backwards it also turned back onto the roadway. Something like a reed switch could kill the power to the drive wheels or an infra red signal. The driveway perhaps should have a magnet on a loop system so as the car approaches it can be picked up to turn onto the driveway? Obviously this needs a bit of thought but in principle its doable.
I hadn't heard of those Faller cars but the idea seems to be easy enough to copy using a suitable chassis modded to fit your own diecast models. Anyway thats food for thought, thanks Daan for the information. I'd like to have a road/rail interface even if it was an endless loop, at least it adds something to have a truck pull up, a crane transfer its load to a train or a bus do its rounds once in a while.
Half the enjoyment I got from my trains was thinking up 'special effects' even if only a few ever got off the drawing board. I take my hat off to Lionels designers I still havent figured out how they do that cattle car and corral routine and I refuse to 'cheat' by looking it up. I think I know the basic principle but I can't figure how they get them to walk uphill.
thor wrote: I've had this one in mind for about half a century! My main beef with slots though, is the slots! I've been working on this idea for quite a while but have yet to build a prototype.
I've had this one in mind for about half a century! My main beef with slots though, is the slots!
I've been working on this idea for quite a while but have yet to build a prototype.
I, too, have been thinking about this, at least for a club module. I'm going to look towards using "earth magnets", which are very small and powerful. The main problem I see is getting the cars to turn in the opposite direction without having to use a "conveyor-belt" loop under the table (since my diecast cars are pretty heavy). Joe
Slot cars and model trains involve two totally different mindsets:
There simply isn't any available bandwidth in the slot car mentality to develop the attitude needed to successfully operate a railroad, model or full size. OTOH, when a model railroader tries to incorporate slot cars into a layout it quickly becomes obvious that the available vehicles will not operate at anything like scale legal road speed without major modification.
To put this in perspective, imagine, if you can, a NASCAR race on a track bisected by a rail line, crossing at grade, that supports frequent loaded and empty unit coal trains...
Chuck (who would love to incorporate scale vehicles, operating at scale speeds, into his scenery)
Remember when K-Line was around, over a year ago, they started making something called Super Streets-an attempt to bring an O gauge roadway to the hobby. They made adapter tracks to go to O gauge track and made some separate sale cars for the track system, the cars they made were not the most realistic but was a good attempt to bring a roadway system to O gauge. Also the track could be used for trolley systems as it was close to 16 inch radius curves.
Lee F.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Jon
So many roads, so little time.
Ever heard of Faller? That's a german make for accesoires. The make small battery powered vehicles, with a steering front axle. On that axle they mounted a strong magnet.
I've used it on a h0 layout. You mount a steel wire with tape on the layout, but make it a continuous loop or point to point. Then pout plaster over it, so that the steel wire is just embedded under the plaster. Paint it and voila, a street. The vehicles will follow the steel wire when driving. I had a bus route with a stop at the station (all models have a magnetic switch inside which can be activated by an electromagnet under the street. It will make them stop if the magnet is powered.
I must say, it works flawless. The bus follows the steel wire very well and keeps on going for a few hours on a rechargable on board battery. The vehicles have scale speed (about 30 miles/hour) and enough tractive effort to climb hills..
To get a bit of an idea on it:
http://www.oude-station.nl/faller_car-system.htm
http://www.modelspoorclubzaanstad.nl/faller.htm
http://www.mec-eggenfelden.de/carsystem.htm (they even have lights in them!)
On these pages you'll get a better impression of the system called "Faller Car system". Please keep in mind that it's all in 1:87 and it's not available for 0, but it might give some builders an idea what to build for their layout (because it's no rocket science).
I've had this one in mind for about half a century! My main beef with slots though, is the slots! My notebooks are full of mad professor schemes for activating O scale vehicles with cord drawn magnets running beneath the road surface, the cords hooked up the way old valve radio tuning dials used to be, with pulleys and springs to keep the string tension and make it follow an endless route more complex than a simple oval.
In WW2 at least one British group of prisoners managed to build a working model railway layout that was powered by string and the trains moved by twirling handles on the front of the board, so the idea can be done and has been done. With modern electronics, micro circuits and small batteries, it should be possible to build vehicles that are self powered and programmable, so your school bus can do its rounds and a few cars and delivery vehicles ditto.
TOMY and Playmobil both had an ingenious mechanical system of self powered vehicles that ran on streets rather like trains by being stuck in a groove so to speak, the real winner would be to design a system that does something like that whilst looking realistic, magnetic wheels following steel strips under the street perhaps, possibly even an induction motor running off mains power. If one can sell a system like this with interlocking tracks that can be made up into different configurations, it might be a winner. I've been working on this idea for quite a while but have yet to build a prototype.
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